While browsing through dealextreme.com, a popular online shop for electronic products here in Asia, I was really surprised to see several iPad-like tablet computers that are sold for as low as $99 (US). Another surprising thing is that they are all powered by Android.

If they really used their brains they would use standard components and a 'off the tree' version of Android which allow the community to take over and offer Android builds as to reduce their costs in the long run.

Are you sure off-the-tree new Android versions support these cheap devices? Would it run at halfway decent speed?

Are you sure off-the-tree new Android versions support these cheap devices? Would it run at halfway decent speed?

They're not doing anything special right now - they need to submit the hardware support (modules) to Google for inclusion in the tree - even if that involves telling Google not to provide the source (Google keep the source in house and provide the binary version to the public). As for the speed, they might need to trim it down but tis the sacrifice if one purchases a cheap device.

As for the speed, they might need to trim it down but tis the sacrifice if one purchases a cheap device.

I'm guessing that trimming down may not be easy, if it's true that new Android versions expect hw accelerated OpenGL to be available. It may well exceed the R&D budgets of these companies, esp. if they can just ship old version of Android and call it a day.